Amy Ranger

Librarian & Artist

I have been trained as a librarian, through the distance program at Southern Connecticut State University. Very interesting way to learn a career, by the way.

I have been an artist for most of my life, but didn’t recognize it until recently.

I started out as a printer and book artist in the 1970s, working with my father, Harry Bollinger, who had a private press called Talponia Press in Alden, Michigan. In the 1980s I received an AASc in Printing at Ferris State College (now University) and worked as a typesetter for 4 years before transferring to the printing supply business and sales in a general bookshop. I also studied with Paul Duensing of Vicksburg, Michigan and worked with Lad Hanka in Kalamazoo on two of his etching books (I supplied the printed text pages): County Survey and Opus Salvelinus. I continued my career in book sales by working for Jim Huang at Deadly Passions Bookshop in Kalamazoo for most of the 1990s. (“Remember, Amy, you know more than you think you know!”)

I became a metal and acrylic artist in the 1990s while working with Tullio Proni at Isher Artifacts; we designed, created, and sold our homemade techie toys (mostly with a science-fiction or fantasy theme) from coast to coast in the U.S. and occasionally in Canada and the U.K. What a life! We didn’t make much money, but we made a lot of friends and visited interesting parts of the country.

Also in the 1990s and through the first decade of the 21st century I began to study fiber arts at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. I began with classes in Needle Felting and Silk Painting using the Serti Technique, then fell farther down the slippery slope with Wet Felting and Spinning Wool on my Lendrum wheel. I have recently taken up weaving, and soon will begin a course in jewelry making. Every so often I upload fiber projects for sale on my Etsy site. I also entered a 7-foot-tall tree made of copper pipe and copper sheet metal into the 2010 Art Prize event in Grand Rapids. That tree now has a place of honor in our backyard, along with a soldered copper sculpture of a woman. I learned to sculpture with copper sheet metal from Hugh Acton of Augusta, Michigan, and also learned how to raise copper bowls with instruction from Ed Gray (Jikiwe) who now lives and works in Calumet, Michigan. In an odd twist of fate, I remember meeting Ed in 1975, when my father helped him with advertising, marketing and printing products. It really is a small world. Eventually I will add images of my art work, but not today.